Attitude of the medical personnel of a pediatrics department towards patient death

Abstract

Introduction Tertiary care hospitals' physicians require high emotional competence, since they are faced with the demands of terminally ill patients and their families. Objective to assess the attitude of physicians of a pediatrics department towards patient death. Method Pediatrics staff and resident physicians anonymously answered the Attitudes Towards Death (ATD) questionnaire. Absolute frequencies, percentages, means, standard deviations, Student's t-test and the chi-square test were used. Statistical significance was considered with p < 0.05. Results The questionnaire was answered by 38 physicians, 26 (68.4%) were residents and 12 (37.6%) staff physicians; 15 (39.4%) were males and 23 (60.6%) females. Four residents (15.4%) had a positive attitude versus 2 staff physicians (16.7%) (p = 0.920). Statistical significance was found in items 1 (69.2% of residents versus 100% of staff physicians, p = 0.03), 16 (23% of residents versus 100% of staff physicians, p = 0.001) and 19 (92.3% of residents versus 58.3% of staff physicians, p = 0.01), corresponding to the avoidance, acceptance and professional perspective dimensions. Conclusion Less than 20% of pediatric physicians have a positive attitude towards death. Most didn't value death as a passage or transition to a better life, or as a solution to life's problems. Introducción Los médicos de hospitales de tercer nivel requie-ren alta competencia emocional, ya que enfrentan las de-mandas de enfermos terminales y sus fami-liares. Objetivo Evaluar la actitud de médicos de un servicio de pediatría ante la muerte de los pacientes. Método Médicos adscritos y residentes de pediatría contestaron anónimamente el Cuestionario de Actitudes ante la Muerte (CAM). Se utilizaron frecuencias absolutas, porcentajes, medias, desviaciones estándar, t de Student y chi cuadrado. Se consideró significación estadística con p < 0.05. Resultados Contestaron el cuestionario 38 médicos, 26 (68.4 %) residentes y 12 (37.6 %) adscritos; 15 (39.4 %) hombres y 23 (60.6 %) mujeres. Cuatro residentes (15.4 %) tuvieron actitud positiva versus dos médicos adscritos (16.7 %) (p = 0.920). Se encontró significación estadística en los ítems 1 (69.2 % de residentes versus 100 % de adscritos, p = 0.03), 16 (23 % de residentes versus 100 % de adscritos, p = 0.001) y 19 (92.3 % de residentes versus 58.3 % de adscritos, p = 0.01), correspondientes a las dimensiones evitación, aceptación y perspectiva profesional. Conclusión Menos de 20 % de los médicos de pediatría tiene una actitud positiva ante la muerte. La mayoría no valoró la muerte como un pasaje o tránsito hacia una vida mejor, ni como una salida a los problemas de la vida.